Divination and prognostication

This category is used for ritual methods whose goal it is to predict the future, or to find information that is normally beyond the ken of ordinary individuals. Such rituals have a wide range of functions; their aims are often practical and worldly: determining the best time for undertaking a new endeavor, revealing the nature/identity of a particular obstacle, or predicting the time of one's death. Many of these rituals are performed for the benefit of individuals, but they can also be performed in the service of religion or religious institutions (for example, determining the identity of a reincarnation), or in the service of a polity (state oracles).